Fluvicola pica
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The pied water tyrant (Fluvicola pica) is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad, and Venezuela, as a vagrant to Ecuador and possibly other areas as well.
The pied water tyrant was formally described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Muscicapa pica in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The pied water tyrant is now placed in the genus Fluvicola that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827. The genus name is derived from a combination of Latin fluvius meaning "river" and -cola meaning "dweller". The specific epithet... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Caroni Swamp | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 3 | El Impenetrable National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Iberá National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 5 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 6 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 7 | Chapada Diamantina National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 9 | Iguaçu National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Iguazú National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 3 | Rosario | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 5 | Maracaibo | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 7 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Valencia | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 9 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | El Paso Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Pied Water-Tyrant sighting in Iguazú National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 338th most-seen of the 343 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Pied Water-Tyrant in Iguazú National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pied Water-Tyrant sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Pied Water-Tyrant sightings, Iguazú National Park ranks 10th at under 5%. The best odds are in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (Brazil, about 60%), Caroni Swamp (Trinidad and Tobago, about 40%) and El Impenetrable National Park (Argentina, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Pied Water-Tyrant that you can see in Iguazú National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Great Kiskadee (about 80%), Social Flycatcher (about 30%) and Boat-billed Flycatcher (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pied Water-Tyrant is recorded against all the birds logged in Iguazú National Park (6 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
